Women on Boards in Finance and STEM Industries

Renee Adams, University of New South Wales and Tom Kirchmaier, London School of Economics present their research on board gender diversity in science, technology, and engineering companies.

The data show that

women are less represented on the boards of firms in STEM&F sectors than in other firms. The difference between non-STEM and STEM&F firms is greater in the US although the average fraction of female directors is higher for both types of firms in the US. The figure also shows that the gap between non-STEM and STEM&F firms does not seem to be narrowing over time.Relative to their share in the population women are less likely to have a science or engineering degree and are less likely to be employed as scientists or engineers (CEOSE, 2013). To our knowledge, we provide the first evidence that the underrepresentation of women in STEM occupations persists at higher levels of the corporate hierarchy.